The NIEHS GuLF STUDY is an epidemiologic study of the health of workers who participated in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill response and clean-up effort. Even with a large database of approximately 28 000 personal samples that were analyzed for total hydrocarbons (THCs) and other oil-related chemicals, resulting in nearly 160 000 full-shift personal measurements, there were still exposure scenarios where the number of measurements was too limited to rigorously assess exposures. Also available were over 26 million volatile organic compounds (VOCs) area air measurements of approximately 1-min duration, collected from direct-reading instruments on 38 large vessels generally located near the leaking well. This paper presents a strategy for converting the VOC database into hourly average air concentrations by vessel as the first step of a larger process designed to use these data to supplement full-shift THC personal exposure measurements. We applied a Bayesian method to account for measurements with values below the analytic instrument's limit of detection while processing the large database into average instrument-hour concentrations and then hourly concentrations across instruments on each day of measurement on each of the vessels. To illustrate this process, we present results on the drilling rig ship, the Discoverer Enterprise. The methods reduced the 26 million measurements to 21 900 hourly averages, which later contributed to the development of additional full-shift THC observations. The approach used here can be applied by occupational health professionals with large datasets of direct-reading instruments to better understand workplace exposures.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8989035 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxab038 | DOI Listing |
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol
December 2024
Department of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Background: Despite evidence from experimental studies linking some petroleum hydrocarbons to markers of immune suppression, limited epidemiologic research exists on this topic.
Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations of oil spill related chemicals (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and n-hexane (BTEX-H)) and total hydrocarbons (THC) with immune-related illnesses as indicators of potential immune suppression.
Methods: Subjects comprised 8601 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill clean-up and response workers who participated in a home visit (1-3 years after the DWH spill) in the Gulf Long-term Follow-up (GuLF) Study.
ISME J
December 2024
Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.
Aqueous-soluble hydrocarbons dissolve into the ocean's interior and structure deep-sea microbial populations influenced by natural oil seeps and spills. n-Pentane is a seawater-soluble, volatile compound abundant in petroleum products and reservoirs and will partially partition to the deep-water column following release from the seafloor. In this study, we explore the ecology and niche partitioning of two free-living Cycloclasticus strains recovered from seawater incubations with n-pentane and distinguish them as an open ocean variant and a seep-proximal variant, each with distinct capabilities for hydrocarbon catabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
Office of the Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America.
J Paleolimnol
April 2024
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, rue des Maraîchers 13, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
Unlabelled: For long time in the history of Earth, ferruginous conditions governed the oceans. With the rise of oxygen during the Proterozoic era and the subsequent evolution of living organisms, worldwide deposition of iron formations occurred. These sedimentary units reveal the transition into oxic oceans, passing by local and transitory euxinic conditions, especially in coastal shelves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
December 2024
Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Electronic address:
The U.S. Coast Guard led a clean-up response to the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, the largest marine oil spill in history.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!